Two men have been found guilty of brutally murdering a father and dumping his body in a caravan after mistakenly believing he was a paedophile.
Mark Roberts and David Garland were also guilty of conspiracy to murder Michael Wheeler, while Jack Rance, Angus Warner, and Reuben Clare, were cleared of all charges at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday.
Mr Wheeler, 37, had been friends with all five but his relationship with Roberts, to whom he owed £100, went downhill when the others saw an article about a man – also named Michael Wheeler – who was jailed in 2003 after admitting grooming and sexually abusing two 13-year-old girls.
They were not the same person and prosecuting counsel, David Elias, KC, made it clear the victim had no convictions for child sexual offences.
Mr Wheeler was then attacked at Roberts’s flat in Yeovil in the early hours of August 24, 2024, suffering multiple injuries, including 11 skull and facial fractures.
His body was hidden, with Garland previously admitting preventing the lawful and decent burial of the body.
About three weeks after Mr Wheeler’s death, police received information he had come to serious harm and began an investigation.
One of the last sightings of him was on CCTV at a petrol station just a few hours before his death.
Michael Wheeler, pictured, was killed after two men mistook him for a paedophile. He suffered multiple injuries, including 11 skull and facial fractures
Mark Roberts, pictured left, and David Garland, right, were found guilty of murder and conspiracy to murder Michael Wheeler and await a sentencing hearing next week
Mr Wheeler, pictured in grey, at a petrol station was last spotted on CCTV at a petrol station just a few hours before his death
Pictured: The caravan where police found Mr Wheeler’s remains. Garland previously admitted preventing the lawful and decent burial of the body
Pictured: The scene at Roberts’s property where Mr Wheeler was killed in August
Officers carried out searches of several addresses and open spaces before finding the victim’s remains in a derelict caravan on farmland in Yarlington, Somerset on September 25.
Detective Superintendent Lorett Spierenburg led the Major Crime Investigation Team enquiry into Mr Wheeler’s murder and said after the verdict: ‘Michael Wheeler was brutally murdered by people he had considered as friends.
‘He was killed over a £100 debt and because they wrongly decided he had been jailed for child sex offences in 2003, when he would have been just 16 years old.
‘The defendants gave Michael no opportunity to tell them they were wrong.
‘Instead, they took the life of a man whose last words to his ex-wife were of love for her and their daughter.’
Mr Wheeler’s mother was suffering from a terminal illness at the time of her son’s disappearance and is said to have spent her last months under the shadow of his untimely death, before dying before the case came to court.
The victim leaves a young daughter, ex-wife and sister.
Roberts, 39, and Garland, 40, have been remanded in custody pending a sentencing hearing, expected to be on June 13.
